Ritualize!

In the temple to fat
you unsew the pustules from your abdomen

build an effigy
for performance of the becoming-sow
fattening into becoming-sow-effigy

you tell me
there is no meat in the space of the ribs

the self is mush
intercostal-feast burning in waxy iron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amputate!

 

Adipose melon
tissue slogging into sand-mold

this incantation is a sculpture solidifying

gelatinous anatomy of unsummon
antlers slouche into deltas

speckled in luminous s-pores

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levitate!

 

cloth draping over stagnant air
fire climbs the body

reveals the subdermal networks

your interior is a becoming-entrail

exit the body as turmeric and ginger
as rhizomes uprooted for investigation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uproot!

 

the mock produce of your garden

cupping hand and ladling pink mousse
from the holed soil

into the empty cavities of inanimate vessel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regenerate!

 

your weight sloshing
leaking bitumen
decaying biomes

as the hardware reattaches itself to your gut

retrace the devices of your nourishing
fill your biomass with warm soup
and steaming vegetable matter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Corrao is the author of three novels, Man, Oh Man (Orson’s Publishing); Gut Text (11:11 Press) and Rituals Performed in the Absence of Ganymede (11:11 Press); one book of poetry, Two Novels (Orson’s Publishing); two plays, Smut-Maker (Inside the Castle) and Andromedusa (Forthcoming – Plays Inverse); and three chapbooks, Avian Funeral March (Self-Fuck); Material Catalogue (Alienist) and Spelunker (Schism – Neuronics). Along with earning multiple Best of the Net nominations, Mike’s work has been featured in publications such as 3:AM, Collagist, Always Crashing, and Denver Quarterly. His work often explores the haptic, architectural, and organismal qualities of the text-object. He lives in Minneapolis. @ShmikeShmorrao